Lecture of Mr. Sartaj Aziz and Mr. Iqbal Haider at CCP Office

Guests:
Mr. Sartaj Aziz
Mr. Iqbal Haider

Justice ® Nasira Iqbal welcomed and thanked the guests for attending the meeting and asked Mr. Sartaj Aziz to give a lecture on poverty, illiteracy and extremism.

Mr. Sartaj Aziz delivered the lecture. Notable points of the lecture are as under:

Poverty & illiteracy
Political issues, unequal distribution of land, population growth rate and illiteracy are the main causes of poverty in Pakistan. Pakistan has to spend a lot of its GDP on its defense. as a result, we remain with scarce funds to spend on our education, health and other development programmes. Korea was behind in sixties but as they did not have to spend for their defense as much as we are spending, so now they are well ahead of the Pakistan. China has developed its relations with India. They have also controlled their population growth rate and now they have become successful.

Extremism
In 1857, Muslim powers, after ruling India for about 800 years, were declined. As Hindus were clever, they became closer to the British while Muslims started resisting the foreign rule. 3 main Muslim schools of thought came into being.

1. Deobandies(Rejectionist)
2. Aligarh(Moderate)
3. Barelvies(Reformative)

    

Aligarh and Barelvi schools of thought were more accepted in the society. Allama Muhammad Iqbal was related to Barelvi School of thought. He motivated Quaid-e-Azam to lead the Muslims of the subcontinent, and due to the efforts of moderate Muslims Pakistan came into being in 1947 . After the death of Quaid-e-Azam, Liaqat Ali Khan handed over Islam to the Molvies. First constitution of Pakistan was made in 1956. Three main issues in the delay were as under:

1. What is the role of Islam in constitution?
2. System of governance (Presidential or Parliamentary)
3. Provincial autonomy

    

In Zia-ul-Haq government, due to geopolitical factors, Deobandies were promoted, the extremists became stronger and called Mujahideen. They took part in Afghan war against USSR and defeated them. Taliban government was established there. As they had influence in our tribal areas and KPK, so when NATO forces attacked Afghanistan, Taliban ran across the border and got shelter in Waziristan, KPK and tribal areas of Pakistan.
In the last 10 years, 4 main groups have been introduced.

1. Al-Qaida (Anti West Global Agenda)
2. Afghan Taliban (Guerilla Warfare)
3. Pakistani Taliban
4. Lashkers (Jhangvi, Tayyaba, Jamat ud dawa etc)

    

Common cause of all these groups is to get power in the name of Islam. Billions of dollars are being funded to these groups from all over the world, especially from the Arabs. In 2009, all parties decided to take action against these groups which were leaded by Soofi Muhammad. These extremists became isolated because of the bombing, suicide attacks and mass destruction around the country. But now once again, the issue of blasphemy law has brought them together. For us, illiteracy and poverty are long term issues, while immediate threat is extremism. To handle this issue, we have to isolate the extremists once again. Constitution of 1973 is neither secular nor extremist, but moderate. It provides solutions through resolutions in parliament and rule of law.     

After the speech - Question and Answer session.
Q-    Do the political parties want to bring the change? Are they capable?
A-    Political parties want to bring the change, but some how or other they are bound. Civil and military establishment is involved in all these setups. Now as NATO is going from Afghanistan, if we take action against Taliban, they would be more harmful in the coming future than they are now.

Q-    Why are we dependent on western world?
A-    As India was a stronger country than Pakistan, so to fulfill our defense needs, we went in different defense agreements with the western world. Our foreign policies and security are not in sync with our economic reality. We must mend our fences with India.

Q-    Why our political leadership is not good?
A-    Our political system was not allowed to become stronger. All the elections were held by the dictators and hence only those leaders remained in the frame who cooperated with them. If we let our political system in elections, after a few years we might be having a good leadership. 

Mr. Iqbal Haider joined at this stage. He was warmly welcomed by the Chairperson, President and other members. Question Answer session continued.

Q-    Why we have not promoted education?
A-    Feudalism and poverty are the main reason. Feudal lords do not want there underprivileged tenant to raise and ask for their rights. We must have better relations with India to minimize our defense expenses, so that we might spend the savings of defense budget to our education, health and other development projects.

Q-    What role youth can play in all these circumstances?
A-    Youth should take interest not only in their subject studies but also in the social matters of the society. They should move in the society and be an active part of it. CCP should get united for education of underprivileged people.

Mr. Iqbal Haider informed that some citizens in Karachi are forming organizations like CCP. He can arrange meetings with them for CCP.
To undermine extremism, CCP delegations should:

• Meet Political Parties.
• Meet Assembly speaker in his chamber.
• Meet labour party.
• Meet Bar association.
• Visit school and colleges
• Condemn projection of extremists on media.

   

« Back to News & Events Listing